Innisfree is a luxury home development in St. Charles. This large parcel has thousands of trees of various species that were spaded in as large specimens. We did the original tree inventory here in May of 2006 just after the land owner planted 30 White Ash as parkway trees to line one of the main in roads. One month later EAB was discovered in Illinois about a mile from this site. Our inventory showed 126 Ash trees were here and it was apparent by 2007 that they were under attack.  The property has a small nursery for future plantings, and these trees were hit the hardest. We have been battling the insect here for years and expect to save 90% or more of these trees. What a great success this will be!  We have a collection of photos and video footage of some of these amazing recoveries that will be released on You Tube later this fall.

Other than the Ash trees, we have fed many of the transplants here with Mycorhizzae, (beneficial fungi), to help get the root systems established. These root feedings, in addition to proper mulching out to the dripline and water management, are all reasons these trees have not just survived but thrived.

Project profile from Moonscape Landscape Illumination, our sister company. Moonscape is also going green with LED Lighting. 

In August, Moonscape installed a new LED lighting system for one of their best customers. A family, with an estate property west of Randall in St. Charles, has been a client since 2008.  After illuminating their secluded pond in 2009, their long wooded driveway was converted using our new LED “Moonlights” The result was magnificent!  They were amazed at their unlocked views of their property after dusk and the artistic beauty that the “Moonlights” brought to their home.

This summer, we have been working to convert our clients’ old Mercury Vapor Lighting Systems to the more effective and cost efficient LED Moonscape System. The “Moonlight” effect is even more breathtaking with the new LED technology. Hundreds of dollars a year in energy savings, coupled with the reduced maintenance costs, is why our Moonscape LED fixtures make sense! Visit www.moonscapelighting.com for more information.

Hats off to St.Andrew's Golf and Country Club!  After Phil's recent discovery of EAB in West Chicago, this well known Golf Club realized it's valuable assets were in danger. The valuable assets we're referring to are their Ash trees. Golf Course Superintendent, Brian York, is a 38 year veteran of this site and has planted some of their 165 Ash trees personally over the years. In July Graf Tree performed an inventory of the trees on this property to collect this data.

Overall number of Ash, GPS coordinate, size, condition and other related data was collected on every tree.  From this data we are working on a cost study analysis to determine how many and exactly which trees we are going to treat and save. Thank you St. Andrews for not only thinking Green but truly making a Green decision.